Animal Farm

FL cops raid home of wheelchair-bound Rx-marijuana activist who’s to have legislation named for her

"Cathy Jordan’s celebrity in the area of medical cannabis, including her conviction that the herb has helped her battle her Lou Gehrig’s disease, does not insulate her from existing marijuana laws. Jordan’s husband, Robert, told the Herald that his Parrish home in Beck Estates on 98th Avenue in Parrish was raided shortly after 2 p.m. Monday by deputies and detectives with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office drug intervention unit who wore ski masks. No arrests were made Monday but a total of 23 marijuana plants, including two waist-high nearly mature plants that Cathy Jordan uses for her treatment plan, and a crop of seedlings, were confiscated by authorities." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFL cops raid home of wheelchair-bound Rx-marijuana activist who’s to have legislation named for her

Philadelphia Cop Who Punched Woman On Video Found Not Guilty

"The former Philadelphia Police lieutenant, who was on trial for punching a woman in an incident that was caught on video, has been found not guilty. The verdict was handed down Tuesday morning. It was a bench trial for Jonathan Josey, which means the ruling was solely up to the judge, who deliberated for two weeks. Josey broke down in tears as the courtroom, packed with police officers, erupted in applause." Continue reading →

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No Exit: China Uses Passports as Political Cudgel

"Legions of Chinese have been barred from traveling abroad by a government that is increasingly using decisions on passports as a cudgel against perceived enemies — or as a carrot to encourage academics whose writings have at times strayed from the party line to return to the fold. The seemingly arbitrary restrictions, not unlike those of the former Soviet Union, also affect overseas Chinese who had grown accustomed to frequent visits home. Scores of Chinese expatriates have been denied new passports by Chinese Embassies when their old ones expire, while others say they are simply turned away after landing in Beijing, Shanghai or Hong Kong." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNo Exit: China Uses Passports as Political Cudgel

Free Movement for U.S. Goods But Not for U.S. Citizens?

"The big headline in U.S. international commerce is a new proposed free trade deal between the U.S. and the evil socialist European states. I don’t understand though how America cannot see that its desire for more free trade is inconsistent with FATCA. Why should U.S. goods be able to move freely around the world while U.S. persons and their capital are forbidden to leave the homeland? And if they should have the temerity to leave anyway then they are punished for doing so. More importantly is it possible for U.S. goods to move around the world if U.S. persons aren’t allowed to accompany them?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFree Movement for U.S. Goods But Not for U.S. Citizens?

Georgia rushes to complete executions before lethal drug supply runs out

"Georgia’s difficulties procuring execution drugs is a reflection of the gradual stranglehold that is being put on the US death penalty by authorities and companies around the world refusing to act as accomplices in the death sentence. The European Commission, following unilateral action by the UK, has imposed restrictions on the export of medicines to all US corrections departments. One of the leading manufacturers of pentobarbital, the Danish firm Lundbeck, has introduced tough restrictions on the distribution of the drug to prevent it falling into the hands of US executioners." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGeorgia rushes to complete executions before lethal drug supply runs out

Undocumented immigrant to Obama: Stop tearing families apart with deportations

"The president’s latest proposal for immigration reforms includes a section that his administration said is focused on keeping families together. But Obama’s refusal to curtail a policy that has led to a record 410,000 deportations during his first term has been cause for concern from immigrant rights groups. 'The border has been the most secure that it has ever been,' Caballero said. 'There’s more money and more troops there, and we need more?'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUndocumented immigrant to Obama: Stop tearing families apart with deportations

Texas bans shooting immigrants from helicopters

"Officials in Texas announced on Thursday that State Troopers would no longer be allowed to open fire on suspects from helicopters after the recent killing of two immigrants. While announcing the new policy, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw insisted that the ban on aerial shootings had nothing to do with the October 2012 death of two Guatemalan immigrants, who were gunned down by troopers in helicopter while they were hiding in the back of a speeding pickup truck near La Joya." Continue reading →

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Drones patrolling U.S. borders spark controversy over privacy

"Intended to protect the borders from illegal crossings and the import of illegal drugs, ten drones flown by U.S. Customs and Border Protection have also sparked a controversy over privacy. The plane are piloted remotely and their images are reviewed in real time by agents at Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista, Arizona. The data is used to help direct agents on the ground or in a helicopter to make a bust. 'The fact we can turn the lights off, we are almost stealth,' said director of Air Operations Dave Gasho. And that, critics say, that is the problem." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDrones patrolling U.S. borders spark controversy over privacy

Imagining a Legal Basis for Obama’s Overseas Assassinations

"Thanks to someone who has reservations about Obama's murders and leaked it, we have a copy of a secret legal opinion that is supposed to lay out the conditions under which such presidentially-directed murders are legal. This heretofore secret document imagines a legal basis for Obama's overseas assassinations. Imagine is not quite the right word. It fantasizes such a basis. It makes it up by stringing together words that are supposed to make a plausible case. On inspection, however, this case collapses. It is rather like setting a wall on what is supposed to be concrete, but actually is pudding." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingImagining a Legal Basis for Obama’s Overseas Assassinations